Improvement in treating tobacco



UNITED STATES PATENT CFFICE.

FRIEDRIOK W. KREYMBORG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPRQVEMENT IN TREATING TOBACCO.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,281, dated September 10, 1872.

Be it known that I, FRIEDRIGK W. KREYM- BORG, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain Process for Improving the Quality and Color of Leaf- Tobacco, intended to be used in the manufacture of cigars, of which the following is a specification:

First. Heretofore tobacco grown in but few States (Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Mary land) was available to the cigar-maker, while the growth of other States, and by far the largest quantity of the production, had to be used for other less remunerating purposes, as the nature of the soil and climate where it was reared imparted properties to the plant, such as mineral and vegetable salts, acids, potassa, nicotine, gums, &c., and either or all of which excluded it from the market as cigar material, to the great loss and discouragement of the planter and manufacturer; and, in order to make the tobacco productions of any State or locality heretofore excluded from the list of cigar-tobaccos available to the manufacturer and to encourage the planter, I'have invented a process for removing and expelling all such objectionable components and ingredients by a system of deoxidization, which process is performed as follows:

I take a vessel or'receptacle of convenient and suitable size, irrespective of form, either of metal, wood, or earthenware, but give preference to an oblong iron boiler, well enameled inside, and fill or pack into the same as much of the tobacco-leaves as it will hold, and cover said boiler so as to allow gas to escape. Said boiler so filled and covered is then placed into a sand or water bath and heated slowly, so as to reach 212 Fahrenheit in about six hours; but during the first two or three hours the heat generated should not exceed the number of 180 After the lapse of six hours, with the heat regulated as here prescribed, it will be found on opening the boiler that the tobacco is of a crisp texture, lightened in weight, and a grayish dust covering the leaves, which, however, readily moves on shaking, and also that the color of the leaves has become darker.

By this process, as described, the contents of the boiler have not been steamed or fermented, but were gradually roasted, and have thereby given up and been disencumbered of all objectionable chemical components, and can at once be worked up into cigars, as the most desirable object has been accomplished, to wit: the tobacco so prepared will freely burn and retain fire, and if the fumes are not as fragrant as the real Spanish leaf, still the odor is now no longer offensive or nauseating.

Although standard cigar-tobacco is worked up in its original condition, and does not necessarily require the treatment herewith described, yet still, if subjected to the same,'it would greatly improve the quality, as gums or resinous matter are thereby extracted and the aroma immeasurably enhanced.

. Second. The cigar-maker has also to contend with another difficulty, to wit: the variety of colors occurring in tobacco; and, in order to develop and uniform the color in leaves that may have been harvested unripe or premature, and being of a light or whitish yellow, or such leaves as are without any color, I treat in the same manner as hereinbefore specified, except that the duration of the process of deoxidization is limited to abouttwo hours, and the heat of 212 is to be generated as fast as possible and maintained at that point during the two hours.

What I claim as my invention, as improving the quality of tobacco, is-

The method or device of applying heat gradually and indirectly for the purpose of deoxidization, as hereinabove substantially described, and thereby destroying and expelling all such chemical properties adverse to the requirements of merchantable cigars andthe health of smokers; and what I also claim, in connection therewith, as my invention, as improving and uniforming the shades and colors of tobacco-leaves, is the method or device substantially set forth in the second part of the foregoing specification, with the modification as to the amount of heat and the limitation of applying the same therein described.

FRIED. W. KBEYMBORG.

Witnesses:

A. D. HARTZE, L. W. WINSKELMANN. 

